Since I frequently travel cross country by car in the spring and summer, I have stayed in hundreds of the 50,000 hotels in the United States, many of which I've also written about. And I cannot be accused of being partial to any individual hotel or chain, since I have skewered them all.

Such as when our room was burglarized at the Holiday Inn. Or when I had to wait three hours to check in at the Marriot, and another 90 minutes the next morning for the parking valet to locate my car. Then there was the outrageously inflated phone bill at the Baymont. Or the heated pool at a Ramada that turned my kids' lips purple with cold.

But the latest entry on my list of hotel chain warnings is Comfort Inn of the Choice Hotels Corporation. Their sin was technically not illegal, nor was it anything that reflected poorly on the quality of room accommodations. But as an advertising ruse that I shamefully fell for, it was among the more irksome offenses.

Coincidentally, a couple of years ago, the CEO of Comfort Inn, Stephen Joyce ($3.5 million salary) appeared in the TV hit series Undercover Boss, posing as an intern, struggling and sweating profusely, while learning about maid service, reservations, and other aspects of the hospitality business.

But thinking back today about that TV episode, I must conclude that when he was being “taught” by one of his hotel underlings in Indiana to use the telephone to solicit hotel business from private companies, he may have learned the art of the “hard sell” a little too well.

My reference is to their recent internet promotion for a free night's stay, that read as follows: “One night free. First trip, second trip, free night! Take two separate trips between February 28 and May 15 and earn one night free at over 1, 500 hotels.”

Since I was close to embarking on a trip within the parameters of those very dates, I thought I might take advantage of the free night, and I booked rooms totaling around $500 in compliance with dates and terms of the promo.

But it wasn't till my trip was concluded, and I tried to cash in on the freebee, that I was refused and told that I did not qualify since the Comfort Inn where I chose to stay was not among the “select” hotels.

When I called customer service to protest, a representative whom I'll call "Malcolm" and then another, “Betty,” were sympathetic, acknowledging the ambiguity and omissions in the ad. They apologized for not having the power to “over-ride” the refusal, after which Betty referred me to her supervisor.

Supervisor “Chad,” who turned out to be better suited as a night club bouncer, than as someone in charge of customer care, informed me that I should have searched for and then read the small print, which was located on another web page.

When I asked Chad why the display ad itself did not indicate that the free night was only at certain of the hotels, he said there was not enough space for it.

When I asked him whether there was, in fact, more than enough space for the insertion of the single word “select” in front of the word "hotels," he evaded the question and subsequently hung up on me.

The misleading ad may signal that the company has decided to sacrifice customer satisfaction for more profits, and possibly even forego customer safety and security, since it hornswaggeled thousands of new customers into giving up their credit card information. Wyndam Hotels, for example, currently faces a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit for breaches in credit card security.

Intrepid journalist that I aspire to be, I wasn't going to let a simple hang-up stand in the way of warning the public, so I searched for and finally reached the office of CEO Stephen Joyce.

His spokesperson, Mr. M., politely insisted that the terms and the conditions of the free night promotion were “clearly defined.”

How he could you say such a thing, Mr.M., when your ad for the free night failed to mention the exceptions, and customers have to navigate to an entirely different page to even find the small print, if they're lucky?

“We changed the wording several times over the past few years,” said M., “to make it as clear as possible so there is not confusion for our guests.”

Methinks yet another change is due, and I believe the FTC just might agree.

DAVID MCGRATH IS EMERITUS ENGLISH PROFESSOR, COLLEGE OF DUPAGE, AND AUTHOR OF THE TERRITORY. mcgrathd@dupage.edu